In response to the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate in 2007 announced a project to develop a new type of data management system that would automatically assess local conditions based on call center data. “The project also plans to deliver a feasibility study and develop a strategy for a social network analysis system that could be employed in disaster preparedness and planning,” according to a DHS description of the program. Texas A&M Research Foundation was awarded a $250,000 contract for the project n 2008.
Though it’s unclear whether the project intends to focus on social media, in addition to social network analysis, Michael Dunaway, who previously served as the program manager, said that agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency needed to take advantage of information coming from such public sources. “[A]ll those live feeds are going to come right from the scene of the victims and they’re going to go somewhere. Where are they going to go?” he said at a talk given at the Center for National Policy. “Right now they’re going to go to CNN’s iReport because the government has made no provision to take this information in either as intelligence or as ground truth of the incident or as an ability to manage the process from the local level.”
Source(s): Department of Homeland Security, Federal Business Opportunities, Center for National Policy
Although various government agencies have talked about their desire to make better use of information posted on social media sites, the actual collection of data has not always been transparent and is fraught with controversy. One program that has come to light is the Department of Homeland Security’s Social Networking Monitoring Center, whose existence was revealed as a result of 2009 lawsuit launched by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against a number of government agencies “for refusing to disclose their policies for using social networking sites for investigations data-collection and surveillance.” A briefing released under the Freedom of Information Act details the DHS Social Networking Monitoring Center and its plans to conduct around-the-clock monitoring during the 2009 presidential inauguration. The center would monitor dozens of various social media sites during the inauguration, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, looking for “items of interest,” the briefing stated. The center also planned to use some commercially available social networking tools, such as Yoono, to help monitor the various sites. The center would not collect “personally identifiable information,” which might include a poster’s full name or social security number, unless it were a “life or death” situation.” The “operational phase” for the monitoring would be January 16 to January 21st, 2009. Very little is known about the center beyond its activities during the inauguration, but the briefing slides state it is “led by social networking experts who have been in the field for 30 years of combined experience. They have conceptualized, designed and built online communities and learned from experience, the social dynamics and technological issues required to understand Social Networking.”
Source(s): Electronic Frontier Foundation